Professor's invisible prompt trap catches 32 students cheating on their midterm with AI

Alcorn State University history professor Jason Gibson used invisible white text in a midterm prompt to test for AI cheating.

The hidden instruction made chatbot answers include absurd Madagascar references, and many students submitted the output unchanged.

Gibson said the flagged students failed that part of the exam, and only two later challenged their grades.

The case highlights how common AI-assisted cheating has become in higher education and how instructors are adapting assessments to detect it.